344 VISIONS AND PROPHECIES OF ZECHARIAH
affliction which commenced with the destruction of the second Temple.
This is how our Lord Jesus beheld Israel s multitudes, and " was moved with compassion on them, 1 because they were distressed (or plagued, or harassed ) and scattered," i.e., they were troubled, neglected, uncared for.
Their outward condition, as they followed Him about from place to place, a disorganised mass, hungry and weary, was pitiable enough, but this was but a faint picture of their ? iritual condition, of the wretchedness of their souls, in insequence of the misguidance and tyranny of their false leaders.
And there in Matt, ix., even as in this passage in Zech- ariah, which may have been in our Lord s mind at the time, the saddest touch in the gloomy picture of Israel s distressed and helpless condition is contained in the words, " because there is no shepherd" or, " as sheep having no shepherd" i.e., no one to guide, or control, or care for them. There were indeed in the time before the Captivity, as later in our Lord s time, many who called themselves " shepherds," but they were false, deceiving shepherds, who devoured the flock, and sought only to feed themselves.
But to proceed to the 3rd verse.
Because their appointed shepherds have proved false, Jehovah Himself, in the Person of the Messiah (as we shall see from the 4th verse), is going to act the part of the Good Shepherd to them. And first He will show His care for His people by delivering them from their false shepherds. " Mine anger is kindled against the shepherds, and I will punish the he-goats" It is not necessary to suppose, with Hengstenberg, Keil, Koehler, etc., that by these false shepherds and he-goats, the " heathen governors and tyrants " who ruled over them in captivity, are meant. It is much more likely that the prophet has such scriptures from the " former prophets," as Jer. xxiii. and Ezek. xxxiv., in his mind, where the false shepherds are their own faith less princes, priests, and prophets in short, those in their 1 Matt. ix. 36, R.V.
